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Communist Party of Georgeland
Not to be confused with this party's modern-day successor, the Georgeland Communist Party The Communist Party of Georgeland was a Communist political party operating in Georgeland from 1919 until its dissolution in 1992. At its height in the mid-1930s the party had nearly three hundred thousand members and was considered as a serious potential threat to Georgeland's security before and during the Cold War. The party advocated the establishment of a Communist state through revolutionary means, though in practice it limited its activities to peaceful political campaigning. Despite this, the C.P.G. had connections to a number of student radical groups, particularly in the 1960s. Several Conservative governments made limited attempts to ban or curtail the C.P.G. but these efforts were never more than token. The C.P.G. advocated a Marxist-Leninist form of Communism for most of its life. A split between Marxist-Leninists and Maoists in the 1950s resulted in the formation of two seperate parties until both were recombined in 1961. The Party officially dissolved in 1992 following the collapse of the Soviet Union. Some of its members formed a similarly named party, the Georgeland Communist Party, in 1994, while others formed smaller fringe Left parties. |- |'Founders' || Brian Kinney, Nathan Carmine, Hannah Rogers and others |- |'Founded' || 1919 |- |'Disbanded' || 1992 |- |'Political ideology' || Communism |- |'International Affiliation' || Comintern |} History Organisations devoted to a socialist agenda had existed in Georgeland for some time by the First World War, most successfully the Labour Party which was by then ascending into dominance. However, Labour's goals and objectives differed sharply from more radical members of the labour movement, notably their commitment to democratic, rather than revolutionary, socialism. The seeds for the foundation of the Communist Party were sewn in 1917 immediately after the October Revolution brought Lenin and the Bolsheviks to power in Russia and established the Soviet Union. The success of Lenin's movement in establishing what was seen at the time by many in the labour movement as an ideal Communist state led to the foundation of the Georgeland Revolutionary Workers League in March 1918, followed by other similar organisations including the Revolutionary Socialist Movement. , one of the founders of the C.P.G.]] In April 1919, the leaders of the various factions of the communist labour movement met in Santa Christina for a conference aimed at establishing a single revolutionary socialist or communist movement. The result was the launch of the C.P.G. on July 12. The Party platform emphasised a commitment to establishing a socialist economy with "full proletarian ownership of industry" through revolutionary means. Despite the commitment to revolution, the party manifesto specifically included provisions for "participation in the bourgeois democratic process", allowing the party to stand candidates at local, state and federal elections. The party's first leadership structure was collective, with the Central Committee exercising the authority of leadership until 1927, when the party moved towards a more traditional, single-leader structure. The initial members of the Central Committee included trade unionists Brian Kinney and Nathan Carmine as well as radical feminist Hannah Rogers. After 1927, Kinney became the most prominent member of the Committee and came to be seen as the party's leader for all intents and purposes, and his face began to become the most prominent on party literature. , feminist and unionist, one of the C.P.G.'s founders]] The Communist Party was heavily involved in the campaign to abolish the monarchy and make Georgeland a Republic. Historians have credited the Party with mobilising thousands of members in support of the referendum, though there is strong evidence to suggest the party used intimidation and in some cases actual violence to achieve this aim. Regardless, with the referendum's success the Party claimed to be largely responsible and continued to do so for many years afterwards. The C.P.G. was more involved in the union movement than in mainstream political discourse, and by 1930 it effectively controlled several major trade unions, notably the dockworkers and steelworkers. The Great Depression saw its membership numbers skyrocket, especially as the Labour Party, still ostensibly committed to socialism, struggled to maintain a united front over economic recovery. The party Congress of 1932 declared its membership to be more than five hundred thousand, though records suggest it was closer to three hundred thousand. It was at this stage that the C.P.G. was considered as a serious threat to Georgeland's national security; with the Depression causing such poor economic conditions and with Labour divided, the Conservative governments of Frederick Eccles (who was said to have been personally reviled by the C.P.G.) and James Gray seriously considered banning the party, to the point where Cabinet considered the proposal in 1934, though it was never agreed to and nothing more came of it. At around the same time, in response to both the Depression and the increasing popularity of the Communists, a number of far-right], fascist or ultra-nationalist organisations sprang up, most notably the All Georgeland League. On March 14 1935, members of the A.G.L. and the Communist Party clashed in the streets of Doubledance in what became known as the Night of Disorder, resulting in three Communists being killed. Though both sides claimed the event as a propaganda victory, the fact that the Communist Party had incurred deaths arguably gave them an edge over the fascists and saw a slight increase in their mainstream appeal. By the Second World War the C.P.G.'s membership had declined considerably, largely as a result of the economic recovery and the election of a strong, united Labour Party under Fenton Thomas. The Party opposed Georgeland's participation in the war, a view shared by Thomas. The Communist Party resolved to reverse their position after the German invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941 and advocated Georgeland's declaration of war on Germany - Georgeland formally declared war on the Axis Powers on June 10 1941, following the bombing of Pearl Harbour. The Communist Party supported the government's actions during the war. Thomas's popularity saw the Party's fortunes decline further, however. By 1955, the Party had been reduced to about thirty thousand members, a tenth of their pre-war strength. The Cold War had largely reduced Communism's appeal among the wider population, though the Party continued to be very active in the trade union movement. In 1956, the party formally split between the Marxist-Leninists and the Maoists, who formed their own party, the Communist Party of Georgeland (Maoist). In 1961 the two parties were merged once again, though tensions between Maoists and Marxists continued to erode the party's influence, and by 1965 their influence, even in the trade union movement, remained minimal. During the late 1960s there was nonetheless another abortive attempt made to ban the party by the Conservatives, now led by Zachary Tamworth, but upon Tamworth's replacement by Thomas Richardson these plans were again abandoned. In the 1970s and 1980s, with Labour now arguably the dominant power in both politics and the union movement, the C.P.G.'s fortunes declined to their zenith. They strongly opposed the deregulation of the economy and the floating of the Georgeland Dollar in the 1980s. , the last C.P.G. leader to exert any major influence over the party]] Following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, the Party Congress voted to dissolve the party. Some party members formed the similarly-named Georgeland Communist Party in 1994; this party claims to be the C.P.G.'s successor. Leaders The Communist Party never had a single, formal leader as such. From the early foundations of the party it was led by a committee, some members of which wielded more influence than others. After about 1927 the position of Chairman of the Central Committee began to be seen as the party's leader, though the party's internal processes did not look upon it in this manner. By the 1970s this position weilded little influence and the party instead looked to a single person as a 'spokesman'. A partial list of people generally considered to have been the leader or leaders of the C.P.G is as follows: *Brian Kinney and Nathan Carmine c.1920 - c. 1930 *Brian Kinney (Chairman) c. 1930 - 1946 *Howard Coates (Chairman) 1946 - 1954 *Leslie Hammett (Chairman, Marxist-Leninist) 1954 - 1957 *George Sewell (Chairman, Maoist) 1954 - 1961 *Albert Coleman (Chairman, Marxist-Leninist) 1957 - 1967 *Norman Ritchie (Chairman) 1967 - 1973 *Geoff Saxon c. 1970 - 1975 *George Mallory-Smith 1975 - 1983 *Roger Winston 1983 - 1990 *Jack Lees 1990 - 1992 Elected representatives Only one open member of the C.P.G. was ever elected to a Georgeland Parliament - Frank Adams was elected to the Mainland state legislature in 1947 but defeated four years later. Despite this, a number of Labour members of the state and federal Parliaments were known to have had ties to the Communist Party, and one, Douglas Mitchum, was elected to the Senate in 1958, though his membership of the Party was not widely known at the time. Category:Georgeland Category:Organisations